Rob Brezsny's Astrology Newsletter
October 10, 2007
FreeWillAstrology.com
+
"At all times I will be the
pupil of everyone."
- Shantideva
"Jesus Christ is the only
God. And so am I. And so are you."
- William Blake
"To live is so startling.
It leaves but little room for other
occupations."
- Emily Dickinson
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
My book
"PRONOIA IS THE ANTIDOTE FOR
PARANOIA:
How the Whole World Is Conspiring
to Shower You with Blessings"
is available for sale at
tinyurl.com/qaj62
To read news and features from
the book, go here:
tinyurl.com/lhwx2
Here's a story about how I wrote
the book:
THE LITERARY EQUIVALENT OF A
SEX-CHANGE
by Rob Brezsny
When I was 19, while other man-boys
my age were dreaming of becoming
doctors and lawyers and rock stars,
a curious ambition overtook me:
I decided I wanted to be a feminist
when I grew up. As I pursued that
goal over the years, I devoted
many meditations to imagining what
it's like to be a woman. While
writing my second book, The
Televisionary Oracle,
I lived part-time inside the psyche
of the heroine for five years.
But I have always been perfectly
happy to be a heterosexual man.
The prospect of dressing in women's
clothes, for costume parties or
any other reason, has never appealed
to me. I'm mildly interested in
the stories of those who have decided
to change their sex with the intervention
of surgery and drugs, but the fantasy
of becoming a transgender person
has never flitted across my mind's
eye for even a nanosecond.
My identity as an author, on the
other hand, has not been as clear-cut.
I have sometimes felt like a storyteller
trapped in the body of a journalist.
On other occasions, it's more the
reverse. I imagine I'm an essayist
stuck inside the persona of a poet,
or else maybe a scholar lurking
within the form of a wacky visionary.
The confusion doesn't stop there.
My heart tells me I'm a mystical
seeker who was born to explore
spiritual themes, even as my head
says I'm an artistic intellectual
whose task it is to illuminate
the mysteries of concrete reality
here on the material plane.
So while I've never dreamed of
being a transgender person, I have
sometimes fantasized about getting
a mythical trans-genre
operation -- a procedure that would
cure me of the nagging sense that
I'm not the writer I'm supposed
to be.
My wish was finally fulfilled
during the four and a half years
I worked on my new book, PRONOIA
Is the Antidote for Paranoia.
It taught me not to struggle against
my contradictions, but rather to
celebrate them. It didn't give
me the literary equivalent of a
sex-change, but rather bestowed
on me a poetic license to be the
authorial equivalent of a hermaphrodite.
+
PRONOIA is my third book,
but my main claim to fame is the
1400-word weekly report that I
syndicate to newspapers and publish
on the Web. Here's the complication:
This lynchpin of my career takes
the form of a horoscope column,
which is not exactly renowned as
a source of deep thought and literary
excellence. I accepted the challenge
of making the most of the opportunity
when it fell into my lap many years
ago, glad to have a gig (any gig!)
that paid me for writing.
In addition to the fact that newspaper
horoscope columns traditionally
don't get no respect from anyone
with more than a tenth grade education,
there is a further problem: Most
of them reflect badly on the ancient
and honorable art of astrology.
Serious students of planetary symbolism,
among whose number I include myself,
regard the shallow, superstitious
advice contained in most horoscope
columns as a gross debasement of
the elegant system they aspire
to master.
I do my best to transcend the
limitations of the genre. Each
of my horoscopes is a kind of love
letter imbued with my reverence
for lively language. Stories and
metaphors are the raw materials
I work with to invigorate my readers'
imaginations. My intention is to
boost their power to shape their
own fates, which is why I call
my column "Free Will Astrology."
I might ask Tauruses to meditate
on the meaning of John Berger's
observation that "Authenticity
depends entirely on being faithful
to the essential ambiguity of experience,"
or compare Virgo's imminent destiny
to an unexpected dance contest
I engaged in with an eccentric
old woman I met while trekking
through Germany's Black Forest,
or exhort Scorpios to meditate
on how their lives in the near
future might resemble that of the
bird called the bar-tailed godwit,
which migrates annually from Alaska
to New Zealand by hitching rides
on gale-force winds.
Do you see how odd my task is?
I'm a devoted astrologer who wrestles
my words into a format that most
good astrologers disdain. I'm a
passionate writer who squeezes
my thoughts into a genre that most
professional writers ridicule.
On the other hand, because horoscope
columns have so little credibility,
no one cares if I twist and play
with mine. That means I've been
able to pull off a feat I never
dared to hope for when I was an
undergraduate at Duke University
studying the work of William Blake,
Arthur Rimbaud, Allen Ginsberg,
Diane di Prima, and company: that
I might someday get paid a decent
wage to create disguised poetry
in a widely syndicated newspaper
column.
There's another perk to the job.
Having given myself permission
to use "Free Will Astrology"
as a vehicle for all my creative
urges, I don't have to confine
myself to being a poet. I've also
been able to be by turns a journalist,
a political pundit, a New Age prophet,
a science reporter, a philosopher,
and an intimate advisor.
There has been a downside to this
tremendous freedom, however. It
allowed my youthful confusion to
blossom into a full-blown identity
crisis. At the dawn of my career
I was inclined to be indulgent
toward my uncertainty. Two decades
later, though, I was having recurring
dreams of William Blake asking
me, "So what kind of writer
do you want to be when you grow
up?"
+
As much gratitude as I feel for
the privilege of creating 12 oracles
every week, there has always been
a part of me that longs to produce
more comprehensive and permanent
artifacts. My first two books,
Images Are Dangerous and
The Televisionary Oracle, were
attempts to address that desire.
Like my astrology column, alas,
both of them wanted to be a festive
hodgepodge of genres. The creative
artist in me was inclined to honor
that urge, but the sensible career-builder
in me protested. "Arrggghhh,"
he complained. "A book cannot
be a riot of styles if it hopes
to reach a wide readership, earn
royalties, and get critical respect.
It has to be one genre or another!
Bookstore employees can't simultaneously
shelve it in the poetry, memoir,
spirituality, fiction, feminism,
and music sections. And the marketing
departments of all the publishers
in the world agree that trying
to straddle a variety of niches
is tantamount to an economic death
wish."
So declared the part of me that
wanted to actually sell some books.
But I didn't listen. Instead, I
followed my poverty-loving bliss.
The results were predictable. About
500 copies of Images Are Dangerous
made it into the marketplace, and
it was reviewed in a grand total
of four publications. The Televisionary
Oracle eventually sold more
than 9,000, which didn't come close
to compensating me for the money
I sank into publicity and my book
tour. It got 25 reviews, mostly
from alt-alt-websites and newspapers
that carry my column. The brightest
light it generated was a blurb
from my favorite novelist Tom Robbins,
who said, "I've seen the future
of America literature and its name
is Rob Brezsny."
Literature! The magic word. He
didn't say, "I've seen the
future of horoscope columns (or
poetic outlaw journalism or crazy
visionary rants) and its name is
Rob Brezsny." But if anyone
else agreed with his assessment,
they have yet to step forth and
proclaim it. The Televisionary
Oracle was bought by cultural
creatives who love festive hodgepodges
and don't care whether or not they're
literature; it was ignored by the
custodians of high culture, who
were as likely to review it as
a Christian fundamentalist would
be to praise its lesbian tantric
sex scenes.
+
I began work on PRONOIA Is
the Antidote for Paranoia
about five minutes after I finished
my 23-city tour in support of The
Televisionary Oracle. Or rather
PRONOIA began working
on me. I took dictation while the
book told me exactly what it wanted
to be. Surprise! It revealed early
on that it planned on becoming
the mother of all festive hodgepodges.
Sometimes I wasn't smart enough
to catch on to its style and message,
and so it had to wait for me to
ripen. Often that meant I was compelled
to go out and have experiences
in my actual life that changed
me in such a way that I wised up
to what the book already knew.
It was for the sake of becoming
a better servant of PRONOIA,
for instance, that I had to fall
in love with the wrong woman, lose
$23,000 on a bad investment, and
wander alone out into the desert
begging for a vision. The lessons
I was taught thereby made me far
more intelligent, or at least far
less stupid, about pronoia.
Luckily, the book was patient
with me. It never kicked my ass
so hard that I fell over, hit my
head, and lost consciousness. Gradually,
it proved to me that if I hoped
to do it justice, I would have
to not only explore and articulate
the principles of pronoia, but
also embody them. It wouldn't be
enough to announce, "Life
always gives you exactly what you
need, exactly when you need it."
I would have to become living proof
that that was the case. And I couldn't
get away with merely writing the
two paragraphs below, I had to
actually become the truth they
speak:
"Life is a vast and intricate
conspiracy designed to keep us
well supplied with blessings. What
kind of blessings? Palatial homes,
attractive lovers, lottery winnings,
career success? Maybe. But just
as likely: interesting surprises,
unexpected challenges, gifts we
hardly know what to do with, conundrums
that force us to get smarter.
"Novelist William Vollman
referred to the latter types of
blessings when he said that 'the
most important and enjoyable thing
in life is doing something that’s
a complicated, tricky problem for
you that you don’t know how
to solve.' Sculptor Henry Moore
had a slightly different angle:
'The secret of life is to have
a task, something you devote your
entire life to, something you bring
everything to, every minute of
the day for your whole life. And
the most important thing is—it
must be something you cannot possibly
do.'"
The universe is inherently friendly
and life is on our side, I learned
while creating PRONOIA.
But it's difficult to perceive
that when we're primarily serving
the agendas of our grasping, small-minded
selves. And so it's crucial to
note that pronoia works in behalf
of the soul, not the ego. In fact,
if it ever took root as a widely
held philosophy, it would probably
overthrow your ego and my ego and
everyone's ego; it would overthrow
the status quo, the government,
and even reality itself.
By the time I was halfway done
with the book, I had come to see
that if I hoped to give birth to
it in its full glory, I would have
to banish my ego, as much as possible,
as a source of motivation for my
writing.
In other words, I couldn't worry
about whether the book would supercharge
my career or earn me money or win
me critical acclaim. My duty was
simply to communicate the meme
of pronoia in all of its paradoxical
splendor. If that meant it had
to be both a rowdy New Age almanac
and an intellectually rigorous
treatise, so be it. If that required
me to weave a mélange of
stories, poems, manifestos, essays,
oracles, and reader exercises,
so be it.
By the time PRONOIA was
ready to emerge, my trans-genre
operation was complete. I no longer
questioned and resisted and fought
with the strange blessings that
life had been trying to shower
me with all those years, but welcomed
them with a full heart.
So am I a storyteller trapped
in the body of a journalist, or
an essayist stuck inside the persona
of a poet, or a scholar lurking
within the form of a wacky visionary?
Am I a mystical seeker who was
born to explore spiritual themes
or an artistic intellectual whose
task it is to illuminate the mysteries
of concrete reality here on the
material plane? The answer is all
of the above. And I thank the universe
for granting me this unsolvable
mystery.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
To read other news and features
from my book, go here: tinyurl.com/lhwx2
You can buy the book here:
AMAZON
tinyurl.com/qaj62
POWELLS
tinyurl.com/3dsx6q
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
OTHER PRONOIA RESOURCES:
MAKING YOURSELF HAPPY
A short video: The Science of Synthesizing
Happiness
tinyurl.com/2v4mbx
GENEROSITY GONE WILD
GlobalGiving.org
"GlobalGiving.org is a marketplace
for goodness where you can browse
ways to help others around the
world, pick the ones you are most
passionate about, and give to the
solution. We connect people like
you with great projects you might
not otherwise find. Much like eBay's
approach to online commerce, GlobalGiving
is changing the way people give.
We work with a network of well-run
organizations and carefully research
their projects -- gathering detailed
information on the project leaders,
as well as the projects' objectives
and expected outcomes. Then, we
make it simple for you to give
to these projects and track the
impact of your generosity."
THE ART OF ASKING SMART QUESTIONS
tinyurl.com/38f2jn
Why not ask yourself smart questions
that will make you happier?
(Note: I endorse these because
I like them. These are not advertisements,
and I get no kickbacks.)
Please tell me your own personal
nominations for PRONOIA RESOURCES.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
FREE WILL ASTROLOGY
Week beginning October 11
Copyright 2007 by Rob Brezsny
FreeWillAstrology.com
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22):
"The future is already here,"
says science fiction writer William
Gibson. "It's just not very
evenly distributed." Your
job in the coming weeks, Libra,
is to locate hotbeds where the
future is concentrated, and put
yourself in the midst of them.
It's time, in other words, for
you to escape from the wan, sludgy
places where the past is masquerading
as the present. You're ready to
thrive on the delightful shocks
of the new.
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21):
Eskimos of Siberia are perplexed
by the changes in their climate,
wrote Usha Lee McFarling in the
Seattle Times. Thunder
and lightning used to be exceptional
events, but now they make regular
appearances. Bizarre, balmy winds
breeze in out of the south. Elders
who were once skilled in the art
of reading the sky to foretell
the weather are at a loss. "The
Earth is turning faster,"
said one hunter. I suspect, Scorpio,
that you're having a comparable
crisis of faith on the personal
level. For you, the Earth may not
only seem to be rotating at a speedier
clip, but also at a different angle.
One of these mornings, you may
even see the sun rise in the west.
But your situation isn't necessarily
as disturbing as the Eskimos believe
theirs to be. For all you know,
the signs are portents of rebirth.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21):
"Quidquid latine dictum sit,
altum videtur" is Latin for
"Anything said in Latin sounds
profound." Since your imminent
future will require you to be elegant,
high-minded, august, and in possession
of gravitas -- even if people you
deal with aren't any of those things
-- I'll provide you with Latin
phrases to fit the kinds of situations
you may find yourself in. (1) Quod
natura non sunt turpia. (What is
natural cannot be bad.) (2) Quinon
proficit deficit. (He who does
not advance, goes backwards.) (3)
Quod cibus est aliis, aliis est
venenum. (What's food to some is
poison to others.) (4) Magna cum
voluptate. (With great pleasure.)
(5) Sane ego te vocavi. Forsitan
capedictum tuum desit. (I did call.
Maybe your answering machine is
broken.) (6) Revelare pecunia!
(Show me the money!) (7) Quomodo
cogis comas tuas sic videri? (How
do you get your hair to do that?)
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19):
The coming week won't be a favorable
time to seek revenge against the
thunder for making such loud noises.
Nor would it be a good idea for
you to curse the sea for being
so restless or to angrily punch
the sky for being so high or to
spread nasty gossip about the wind
for refusing to heed your commands.
On the other hand, cosmic fortune
will bless you if you yourself
are like an elemental force that
unapologetically obeys the laws
of your own nature.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
AUDIO LOVE LETTERS
In addition to the horoscopes
that come to you in this newsletter,
I create
more in-depth audio horoscopes
for your inspiration. I think of
them as
my love letters to you. They're
$6 if you access them on the Web,
or
$1.99 per minute over the phone.
Try them at RealAstrology.com.
They're available by phone at
1-877-873-4888
or 1-900-950-7700.
"Your expanded astrology thingees
help me remember who I really am."
-
Gareth N., Toronto
"I never knew it was possible
to get my butt kicked and my head
patted
at the same time -- until I listened
to you, Rob." -Kristi P.,
Portland, OR
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18):
One morning a few weeks ago, I
was sipping tea in a cafe on San
Francisco's Valencia Street. Diving
in to the New York Times,
I found a front-page, above-the-fold
story about how San Francisco has
become the first American city
to offer free or subsidized health
care to all adults who don't have
medical insurance. My response
was a mix of happiness and surprise.
I was pleased to learn that my
homebase had struck such a radical
blow for practical compassion.
And I was bewildered that I had
seen nothing about it in any of
the local Bay Area media. You may
experience a similar scenario soon,
Aquarius. To become aware of a
major development that has been
occurring close to you, you might
have to get help from a distant
source.
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20):
"Dear Rob: I base who I am
on how much I have suffered. My
identity is wrapped up in all that
I don't have but want, the things
that have hurt me, and every wrong
that has been done to me. The weird
thing is, though, that I've actually
made a flourishing, creative life
for myself. My experiences are
far richer and my luck is much
greater than my 'poor suffering
soul' would like to admit. Any
advice? -Successful Yet Gloomy
Pisces." Dear Successful:
I'm happy to announce that the
coming weeks will be an opportune
time for you Pisceans to accomplish
a big shift in your relationship
to your difficult memories. Life
will be conspiring to free you
from the compulsion to anchor your
sense of self in your pain.
ARIES (March 21-April 19):
I'm not necessarily recommending
that you read Stanely Seigel's
book The Patient Who Cured
His Therapist. But I do think
you should regard the title as
a suggestive metaphor for your
immediate future. It's possible
that you'll be helped by a person
you've been helping, or be given
gifts by person to whom you've
given gifts. Could it be that you'll
be healed by someone you imagine
you're superior to, or taught a
beautiful lesson by someone you
don't understand? Meditate on the
ways you might be the beneficiary
of a role reversal.
TAURUS (April 20-May 20):
"For those who are walled
up, everything is a wall . . .
even an open door." in conveying
this thought from the French poet
René Char, I don't mean
to imply that you're any more walled
up than the rest of us, Taurus.
My reason for mentioning it at
this particular moment is to prod
you into taking aggressive action
to un-wall yourself in whatever
ways you can. According to my reading
of the omens, the cosmos will reward
your efforts to topple facades
that are obstructing your view
and preventing you from being touched.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
AUDIO HOROSCOPES
In addition to the horoscopes
that you're reading here, I create
more in-depth audio horoscopes
for your inspiration. Find out
more at RealAstrology.com.
The audio horoscopes are also
available by phone at 1-877-873-4888
or 1-900-950-7700.
"You told me the truth when
no one else in my life would."
-Darren H., Minneapolis
"Your wake-up calls keep
me from getting stale." -Arris
T., Aspen, CO
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
GEMINI (May 21-June 20):
"If one theorized about the
nature of the Creator from a study
of creation," said British
geneticist J. B. S. Haldane, "it
would appear that God has an inordinate
fondness for stars and beetles."
He drew that inference from the
facts that one-fourth of all animal
species are beetles and that in
the Milky Way Galaxy alone there
are a trillion stars for every
person on earth. What about you,
Gemini? What could we conclude
about the nature of your mission
here on the planet if we took an
inventory of what you create? What
are the experiences, products,
artifacts, words, feelings, and
impressions that you regularly
spawn, and what do they say about
you? It's an excellent time to
meditate on this subject.
CANCER (June 21-July 22):
I think it will be important for
you to be brave in the coming days.
Probably not in the sense of rushing
into a burning building to save
a child, but rather in the sense
of expressing yourself with forceful
grace in situations where you have
previously been asleep or hidden
or ignorant. In order to summon
that much courage, you'll be wise
to heed the advice of Buddhist
author Pema Chodron: "The
essence of bravery is being without
self-deception." Be rigorous
as you uncover any lies you've
been telling yourself.
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22):
Zam Zam Cola is a popular soft
drink in the Middle
East, an alternative to Pepsi and
Coke in a place where many people
have
made a political decision not to
buy American products. It's named
after
the revered Well of Zamzam, which
is located near the Kaaba in Mecca,
the holiest place in Islam. In
accordance with your current omens,
Leo, I
urge you to do the metaphorical
equivalent of naming a cola beverage
after a spiritual power spot. For
example, you might imagine that
a peanut
butter-and-jelly sandwich contains
the essence of your favorite god
or
goddess. As you eat it, fantasize
that you're absorbing that deity's
divine
energy. The point is to be casual
about something you regard as precious;
to be playful with something you
take seriously; to have fun with
what's
most sacrosanct to you.
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22):
The faintest star in the night
sky is Van Biesbroeck's star. It's
only about as big as the Earth
and is just .002 percent as luminous
as our sun. Every other heavenly
light outshines it. From one perspective,
then, it's a puny little thing.
And yet it is visible
despite the fact that it's almost
19 light years away from us. From
that point of view, it's an amazingly
intense, potent, brilliant body.
Is there anything about you that
resembles Van Biesbroeck's star,
Virgo? I think there is. Celebrate
and show off that part of you in
the coming week.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
HOMEWORK:
Comment on Nietzsche's belief
that "One must have chaos
within oneself if one is to be
a dancing star." Testify by
going to RealAstrology.com
and clicking on "Email Rob."
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
WANT TO GET YOUR CHART DONE?
I'm not doing personal charts
these days, but I highly recommend
my
favorite astrological colleague,
RO LOUGHRAN. Her approach closely
matches my own. In our many discussions
about astrology over the years,
we've had a major influence on
each other's work.
Ro utilizes a blend of well-trained
intuition, emotional warmth, and
a high
degree of technical proficiency
in horoscope interpretation; she
is skilled
at exploring the mysteries of your
life's purpose and nurturing your
connection with your own inner
wisdom.
Ro is based in California, but
can do phone consultations and
otherwise
work with you regardless of geographic
boundaries.
Ro's website is at www.YourSoulJourney.com
She can also be reached at roloughran@comcast.net
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Submissions sent to the Free
Will Astrology Weekly Newsletter
or in response to "homework
assignments" may be
published in a variety of formats
at Rob Brezsny's discretion,
including but not limited to newsletters,
books, the Free Will
Astrology column, and Free Will
Astrology website. We reserve
the right to edit such submissions
for length, style, and content.
Requests for anonymity will be
honored with submissions;
otherwise, reader names, screen
names, or initials will be used.
Please be sure to note your preference
when sending to us. We
are not responsible for unsolicited
submission of any creative
material.
Contents of the Free Will Astrology
Newsletter are Copyright
2007 Rob Brezsny
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
|
